The present invention relates to the display of content in a computer system and more particularly to providing interaction between a first content set and a second content set.
Content display in computer applications can be personalized by a user. For example, a user can select web content from multiple content providers for display within a single web page.
Aggregators are applications that allow a user to personalize content display. Aggregators can execute on a server computer or a client computer associated with the user. FIG. 1 shows a system 100 for personalizing content display in a web page. The system 100 includes a client computer 110 having a web browser 105 and a server computer 120 having an aggregator 115. The aggregator 115 and the web browser 105 communicate, through a network 135, with one or more content providers 125 and 130 represented as servers connected to the network.
A user can use registration functions provided by the aggregator 115 to register (in other words, to “select”) a content set available from a content provider. For example, the user registers a first content set comprising a stock application associated with the first content provider 125 and a second content set comprising a banking application associated with the second content provider 130.
The aggregator 115 uses the registration functions to retrieve the associated content sets. After retrieving the content sets, the aggregator 115 sends the content sets and an associated web page to the web browser 105 in client computer 110. The web browser 105 displays the content sets in the web page. Typically, different content sets are displayed in separate display areas within the web page. FIG. 2 is a simplified example of a web page 200 having a first display area 205 for displaying the first content set and a second display area 210 for displaying the second content set.
Typically, the aggregator 115 also uses the registration functions to retrieve updates associated with content sets. After retrieving the updates, the aggregator 115 sends the updates to the web browser 105, which causes the updates to be displayed in the display area associated with the updated content set.
If the first content set and the second content set are provided by different content providers, as is commonly the case, there is no association between the first content set and the second content set.
Although current aggregators allow for content sets to be easily aggregated for display with minimal set up and user knowledge, there remains a need for increased flexibility in the way a user can use the content sets.